Theories of Social Work
1. Theories of Social Work S.Rengasamy Madurai Institute of Social Work Social Workers Celebrating Community –Honouring Diversity
2. Social Work is a practical job. It is about protecting people and changing their lives, not about giving theoretical explanations of why they got into difficulties … Social work is about social change at the individual as well as at community level. Change is complex, diversified and risk prone. To understand it, social worker need knowledge. imagination, comprehension & creativity….in short, a radical shift in understanding “Knowledge as process” as opposed to “Knowledge as product” is needed. But our understanding of social work (especially with the faculty and students of social work colleges in non metropolitan cities of India and students with low level mastery of English language) is frozen with the simple definition of social work ...it is the art and science of helping the people to help themselves. Compilation and interpretation of social work definition accessible to the students (PD Mishra 1994) conveys a meaning that social work is a “helping” “assisting” „enabling” activity, which in turn suggests social work is seen as a benign and uncontentious activity, willingly accepted. This understanding fails to reflect the major transformations social work discipline has undergone as well as its global outlook. There is nothing wrong in simplifying a concept, but if it ignores the complexities associated with the concept, that will end our further seeking. Whatever may be a definition of social work, it is normally based on certain perspectives and understanding of that perspective / theory will help us to appreciate that definition. It is this clarity that normally make one to commit in his/ her professional responsibilities.
3. To answer these questions one need to What is the need know why people are suffering. What is our of social work or responsibilities towards Why Social work? fellow human beings? How we gain knowledge about the human problems? What makes us perceive the human Definition of problems in a particular social work How social work way? Why we subscribe generally convey is carried out? to certain methods of solving problems? …. Social workers need to answer these questions To whom social before addressing others work is going to problems. Theories & serve? or perspectives of social characteristics of work may provide some answers to these its cliens questions
4. Why Social Work? Life means to face the demands of day to day life and realize the self. By life tasks we mean the responses people make as they face the demands made upon them in various life situations, such is growing up in a family, entering school or work, raising a family, earning their daily bread, working in the industry, problems relating to job or earning, facing illness, accidents and death. People are dependent on social systems to realize their aspirations and to cope with their life tasks. In order to realize their life tasks people have to interact with three kinds of resource systems in the social environment 1. Informal or natural resource system consists of family, friends, neighbors, co workers, etc 2. Formal resource system consists of membership in organizations, trade union organizations or other socio cultural organizations 3. Social resource system such as schools, hospitals, housing societies, police, banks etc Why people are unable to obtain the resources, services or opportunities in the resource systems, they need to cope with their life tasks and realize their aspirations? 1. A needed resource or service may be scarce or may not exist or may not provide appropriate help to people who need it. 2. People may not know the existence of a resource system or may be hesitant to turn it for help for several reasons like distance, corruption, delay or poor quality etc 3. The polices and procedures of the resource system may inhibit / prevent it access (eg. eligibility criteria, gender, etc) 4. Several resource system may be working at cross purposes The purpose of social work is to enable the people to use the social resources to meet their life tasks
5. What do we mean by helping people to help themselves? 1. Increased understanding of oneself or a situation. 2. Being able to make a decision 3. Being able to confirm a decision. 4. Being able to get a support for a decision. 5. Being able to change a situation 6. Adjusting to a situation that is not going to change 7. Being able to examine options and choosing one 8. Being able to discharge feelings Compare self help with empowerment Empowerment includes the following, or similar, capabilities:- The ability to make decisions about personal/collective circumstances The ability to access information and resources for decision-making Ability to consider a range of options from which to choose (not just yes/no, either/or.) Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making Having positive-thinking about the ability to make change Ability to learn and access skills for improving personal/collective circumstance. Ability to inform others’ perceptions though exchange, education and engagement. Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma Increasing one's ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong
6. Theory is an “attempt to retrospectively explain and to What is theory? It is important first to be clear what the term theory means in an academic sense. Cottrell provides a useful general definition: A theory is a set of ideas that helps to explain why something happens or happened in a particular way, and to predict likely prospectively predict” outcomes in the future. Theories are based on evidence and reasoning, but have not yet been conclusively proved. Thompson‟s definition includes similar ideas: An attempt to explain…a framework for understanding…a set of ideas linked together to help us make sense of a particular issue. Writing about social work theory, Beckett makes a connection with practice: …a set of ideas or principles used to guide practice which are sufficiently coherent that they could if necessary be made explicit in a form which was open to challenge.
7. It will be useful if we understand the different types of theories taught and the logic as why are these theories imparted to the students. It may be logical to group these theories in broader categories e.g. Theories of evolution, Theories of personality (development) & learning theories, Theories of social organization and social change, theories of social stratification, Theories of individual and group behavior, Theories of deviance, crime and correction, Theories of economic growth and development, theories of group dynamics and leadership, Theories of social work (clinical practice) etc.
8. Curriculum Development Centre in Social Work Education, University Grants Commission, India recognized three elements of social work curriculum 1. Values of the profession 2. Skills and methods that are developed for the professional task 3. Major theories and concepts Objectives of teaching theories 1. Refinement of practice 2. Provision of changing theoretical inputs to the social work knowledge base 3. Building up of new theories from the practice data The centre has recommended to include many different theories discretely and dispersaly but failed to do a wise selectivity of appropriate theories to be taught rationally and coherently and imparting knowledge of these theories compactly as an independent course that are taught in other disciplines eg. Sociological Theories, Modern Economic Theories, Contemporary Political Theories, Psychological Theories
9. Thompson explains that there are different levels of theories. These are: Grand, macro-level or global theories (sometimes known as meta-narratives), such as Marxism or Psychoanalysis, which claim to be able to explain everything in society, or all human behavior; Middle-range theories which focus on a limited range of issues – for instance, labeling theory, which from a social integrationist perspective aims to explain deviance; Micro theories developed to explain very small-scale situations – for instance, relationships between staff and patients on a hospital ward.
10. The term theory is loosely used in social work profession. The use of social work theories in professional literature is rather ambiguous. Concepts, frames of reference, practice models and philosophical propositions have been termed as theories.
11. How theories help social workers? Social workers might use theory to understand and explain three main aspects of social work 1. The task and purpose of social work – the role of social work in society; 2. Practice theories: sometimes called social work approaches or methods – how to go about doing social work; 3. The world of service users, including the internal (psychological) world and the external (social) world
12. In social work, the term ‘theory’ covers three different possibilities: Provable explanations why something happens (Explanatory Theory) Organized description of activity in a structured form (Models) Ways of conceptualizing the world or a particular subject (Perspective)
13. Conceptual Frameworks Theories OF Social Work Theories FOR Social Work Orienting Theories Practice Frameworks Practice Perspectives Practice Theories Practice Models Theories of social work Focus on the profession and explain its purpose, domain, and character within the society. They describe what the profession is all about and why it functions as it does. Theories for social work Focus on clients and helping activities. They explain human behaviours, the social environment, how change occurs and how change can be facilitated by the social worker in order to benefit
14. Practice Frameworks Orienting Th